Does your heart sink when the phone rings? 🫠

By Gunila Pedersen • • 2 min read

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How do you feel when the phone rings at the clinic, with a request to be seen? ☎️

If you’re anything like a lot of vets that are on the verge of burnout, you’ll get a sinking feeling in your chest.

It’s interesting to examine the thought (s) behind that feeling, though.

It’s different from person to person, but it could be:

“What if they bring in something I don’t know how to diagnose or treat properly?”

“I just can’t be bothered right now to deal with this”

“Uf, this is going to require a lot of effort…”

A lot of times we just think thoughts on autopilot.

The first thought, which is a version of impostor syndrome, is probably one we’ve kept from when we were new grads, and just keep on replay. And even if you ARE a new grad - still question this thought:

What is “diagnose or treat PROPERLY”, anyway? It’s kind of a version of “I’m not good enough and may screw this up, a REAL vet would do it perfectly”.

Noticing that your brain has gone into this gear is the first thing you have to do in order to recover your confidence and remember that of course you can figure it out, and you have people to ask, books to look up, and Google and Youtube at your fingers, anyway!

And it’s often just in EXPECTATION of the visit, once we see the animal and speak to the owner, we’re fine and just crack on!

The other thoughts, that are some version of “I’m too tired and can’t cope with this”, are also just thoughts on autopilot. Because when we’re actually super busy and in the zone, we cope much better than when we have time to sit and ruminate over what MIGHT come through the doors, right?

What often makes us really tired and unmotivated are the thoughts spinning in our head, more than the actual work. We don’t realise, because we are letting our brain run on autopilot, and then we just feel “meh”, thinking it’s the actual situation we’re reacting to, not our thoughts.

Next time you feel your heart sink at the sound of the phone, notice what your brain is offering you; what thoughts are making you feel like this, and QUESTION them. Do a quick review at the end of the day, and write down the dominating thoughts, so you can separate out what’s happening, in a neutral manner.

In your corner,

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P.S. if your autopilot thoughts are giving you a hard time, reach out for a free coaching session with me and let's pull them apart together: https://calendly.com/gunila-lifecoach/50-minute-free-coaching-consultation​

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